Man held at gunpoint by Fort Mill mom says he’s no sex predator

The Charlotte man who was held at BB gunpoint by an enraged Fort Mill mother who found him in her daughter’s bedroom Sunday after they had sex says he is no sexual predator, and only went to the girl’s house after she asked him to come over several times. He also says he never knew the girl was 15 until that night.

The Charlotte man who was held at BB gunpoint by an enraged Fort Mill mother who found him in her daughter’s bedroom Sunday after they had sex says he is no sexual predator, and only went to the girl’s house after she asked him to come over several times. He also says he never knew the girl was 15 until that night.

Addison Pittman, 23, is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, a felony that carries a maximum 10 years in prison upon conviction. Deputies say the teenage girl’s mother held Pittman at BB gunpoint after finding him in her daughter’s bedroom. He was released from jail Monday on a $15,000 bond.

On Tuesday, the mother told The Herald that once she found Pittman, she instructed her oldest daughter to retrieve her black, long-barrel BB gun. She held the gun at him, leading him out of her daughter’s bedroom and into the living room. The mother said Pittman told her he was 17.

Pittman told The Herald on Wednesday that he and the girl met a couple of months ago on Instagram, a social media video and photo-sharing service offered through Twitter. She told him she was 18 “when we were talking one time on the phone.”

Last weekend, the girl asked him to come over to her home in Fort Mill while he was spending time with his cousin at the CIAA basketball tournament in Charlotte, he said.

He agreed to go to the girl’s home “because I was invited.”

He was only spotted in the house, he said, because the girl told him to use the bathroom. As he was walking in the hall, the girl’s family members spotted him. Her mother grabbed the BB gun and held it at him. He says he didn’t try to escape, but that the girl told him to jump through the window.

“I was just really scared at the moment,” he said. “I was in a state of shock the whole time. I just feel they’re making it seem like I was a predator. That’s not me at all.”

He maintains he did not learn the girl was 15 until deputies arrived. He admits that he told the girl’s mother he was 17 because “I figured that would get me out of trouble.”

“I knew I was 23 years old,” he said. “The girl knew I was 23. When she told me (she was 15), it shook me up. I had never been in a situation like that. I never messed with a minor.”

The girl’s mother on Wednesday said her daughter did not tell Pittman she was 18, saying he knew “way before” Sunday that she was underage. She maintains that he tried to escape through the front and back doors of her home. That’s why she grabbed the gun.

The mother said Pittman “made the choice to come across state lines and have sexual intercourse with a child, and those were his choices.”

Pittman declined to answer whether he had sex with the girl, saying he first had to consult an attorney. A college student studying criminal justice, he said he aspires to work as a lawyer or probation officer.